It’s all over but the voting. Then comes the chaos of buyouts and low-ball free-agent signings.

If ratified by the 700-plus members of the NHL Players’ Association in a vote expected next Thursday, and approved by the league’s governors, the NHL’s Cold New World begins with a six-year collective bargaining agreement the sides’ negotiators reached yesterday.

“It’s the best news we’ve had in a long time,” Devils GM Lou Lamoriello said. “Everybody in hockey is excited. We hope and expect that this is something we can put in the past, and get the game back in the minds of the fans, and get new fans.”

The deal would spell an end to the free-spending practices of the Rangers, Flyers and Red Wings, all of whom would have to operate under the same $39 million team payroll and benefits cap as Calgary, Edmonton, Nashville, San Jose and the rest of the league.

It also will spell the beginning of a spree of buyouts of high-paid stars, and a host of free agents in a buyers’ market this summer.

The final hurdle appears to have been cleared when the league allowed unrestricted free agency for seven years service, or at age 27, after 2007-08.

But, still, there’s the voting. Plenty of players will be angry at giving back 24 percent of their contracted salary; having 15 percent of that held in escrow against the league’s ability to reach $1.7 billion in revenue this season; and having to play under a salary cap, the biggest issue of the lockout.

“Until it’s ratified by both the players and the owners, we’re all cautious,” Lamoriello said.

Some players will be taking a wait-and-see attitude to their meetings in Toronto next Wednesday and Thursday, but ratification seems certain.

“It doesn’t make much sense to decide what you’re going to do until you’ve gone through the whole thing. That’s what next week is for. Otherwise, it’d be a thousand phone calls, and take forever,” Devils rep Brian Rafalski said. “It’s going to be a long, boring meeting, going over 600 pages of documents, but it’s important, because it’s everyone’s contracts.”

The players, who saw their average salaries triple in the 10 years since the previous lockout ended in 1995, likely will watch average pay drop from $1.8 million to $1.2 million.

The league, which says it lost $1.5 billion in that 10-year stretch, will limit payroll to 54 percent of revenue. Teams will be required to pay at least $21 million in salaries and benefits.

The league had offered a $42 million cap in February. In a vain effort to save the season, the union broke its long-standing refusal to accept a cap, offering a $49 million lid that was rejected.

The lockout, still formally in its 302nd day today, gave the NHL the black eye of being the first North American major sport to cancel a full season because of labor issues.

After that humbling, however, negotiations turned fruitful and frequent. In the past three weeks, the sides met nearly daily, often long into the night, with Tuesday’s climactic session winding up yesterday morning.

“It was a long, painstaking process,” NHL vice president Bill Daly said. “[It took] a lot of time and effort on both sides.”

The sides will return to an NHL where tie games may be resolved with shootouts, goalie equipment will be shrunk, and two-line passes likely will be permitted.

It also will be a league where the best players will make big money (up to 20 percent of the team’s cap), and everyone else will have to scramble for scraps.

It will be a cold league, more business than sport.

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Deal details

The Rangers, Devils and the rest of the NHL will be back on the ice this fall after the league and the players’ association reached an agreement in principle yesterday on a six-year labor deal, ending a 301-day lockout that wiped out last season. Here’s a look at some of the details:

* A scaled-down draft is expected to be held later this month.

* Training camps will open in September. Games will begin in October.

* The salary cap likely will have a ceiling approaching $40 million with a minimum between $20 million and $25 million.

* Player salaries will not exceed 54 percent of league-wide revenues.

* It is likely last season’s player contracts will be wiped from the books, leaving many as free agents.

* Players still under contract will have their salaries reduced by 24 percent.

* Rules changes that could include the size of goaltender equipment to the installation of a shootout to eliminate tie games.